Zum Chanukafest pamphlet, 1914

Crop of the front page of a pamphlet written in German showing an eagle design at the top above the title Zum Chanukafest.

Zum Chanukafest pamphlet • Leo Baeck College Library

The Leo Baeck Library Pamphlet Collection includes over 6,500 pamphlets published in the last 150 years showing the vibrancy of Jewish history and ideas.

This pamphlet begins “For Chanukah 1914 – A greeting to the Jewish soldiers of the German Army from the Union of German Jews”. It includes psalms, poetry, plays, Torah and rabbinical encouragement to inspire the World War I soldiers receiving it with the deeds of the Maccabees.

The front page of a pamphlet written in German showing an eagle design at the top above the title Zum Chanukafest.
Zum Chanukafest pamphlet • Leo Baeck College Library

It also features a remarkable “Dialogue Between the Chanukah Light and the Christmas Light” by Rabbi Dr Georg Wilde, Chaplain to the Supreme Command of the Fourth Army. Wilde would later be a refugee from Nazi Germany to England but his message of hope expressed through the lights of different traditions shining towards each other, so moving in the context of the Great War, still resonates over 100 years later.

You can see the entire pamphlet online here: https://lbc.ac.uk/library-resources/collections/pamphlet-collection/

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